University of Tampa students will have something else to consider besides which brand of chips to put out and how many beers to buy Super Bowl Sunday.
During recent floor meetings, some RAs have been telling their residents that they will not allow more than 3.4 people in a room watching the Super Bowl.
Krystal Schofield, Director of Residence Life,’ says the topic of copyright law first came up in RA training. RAs were being further educated on copyright laws and how it applied to their jobs, not specifically for the’ Super Bowl.
‘Some RAs were looking for hard facts on how many people could view an event in a room and it still be considered a private showing,’ she said.
‘ Adam Goldstein, attorney advocate at the Student Press Law Center said he had never heard of the 3.4 person rule.
‘If you want to throw a party and invite a thousand of your closest friends, which I’m sure is happening this weekend across the Hamptons, there is no legal obstacle,’ he said.
He also said that viewing parties for the Super Bowl are legal as long as they don’t charge or constitute a public performance in which people can come and go, such as showing the game in the Vaughn Courtyard.
According to John Stepro, director of media services, the number 3.4, is the estimated number of people per household in’ the U.S.’ and it is considered to be the threshold for what is a private showing and what is a public performance.
Stepro says that a good example of a private showing would be a few friends coming’ over to watch a movie or play a video game.’
However,’ when a movie or video game is being played with a door open and people free to go in and out, it begins to’ infringe copyright laws’ of Microsoft for Xbox, Nintendo for Wii, Sony for Playstation 3 and the individual movies.
Stepro says that this is’ the reason why there’ are no’ DVD/VCR players in any of the common’ residence hall spaces, such as Rescom Clubhouse and the Commuter Lounge in the’ Vaughn’ Center.
In order’ to play movies in public spaces like these, the individual must purchase the rights of the movie.
Each week,’ Student Productions spends almost $1,000 dollars for the rights’ of each movie that they play in Reeves Theatre.’
For music, UT has the ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers)’ rights, which allow anyone to play music publicly on campus. ‘
Beyond campus, bars and restaurants that have big screen televisions and show NFL games need special permission though because they are competing with the NFL’s right to sell tickets.
One television over the bar would not require special permission, he said, because it is not considered to be competing with the NFL.
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